Tuesday, August 08, 2006

August Happiness Challenge ~ August 8 ~ Flying with Routines

Well, it feels distinctly unglamorous to share with you that one of the things that makes me happy is the sense of serenity that I get when things around the house are at least relatively clean, tidy and ordered. And every time things get out of hand, I return to that dear woman, Flylady and her principles of loving yourself by letting go of perfectionism and taking baby steps to get your house in order. Her system is simple, loving and detailed. If you sign up for the email group, you get something like 15 reminders a day, plus testimonial and more. (I say that so you know what you're getting into if you sign up)

Recently when Justin and I were feeling like things had become particularly chaotic, we went with the Flylady concept of creating a list of daily and weekly routines. I've got my own as well, but on the fridge is a list of the things that we'd both like to get done every day in our house and either of us can do them. We've had this in place for 2 days and already our house looks better. We're smiling a little bit more and feeling more relaxed at home. It's not about doing it all, all the time. It's about doing the best you can, enjoying what you've accomplished and waking to a fresh day to start again tomorrow.

4 comments:

Shannon said...

Looks like a great list!! Amazing what puts the mind at ease :) Good for you !!

Suzie Ridler said...

Whatever works for you, works Jamie! I can understand, I love having a clean home too. Not being a list person, I just try and do two extra things a day.

I'm so glad you're feeling more restful at home, that makes life so much better!

Anonymous said...

I am horribly unorganized. I have visited the fly ladys site several times. I am on step one of her plan. Keeping the sink clean. I have been working on that step for about 2 months, still not there yet... One day I hope to be organized enough to have lists on the fridge, for now I am in a place where it would take me 20 minutes to find a pen in this mess.

liz elayne lamoreux said...

okay...so you are reading my mind here. jon and i need to create this list for the fridge. we have been talking around it for two years. and i discovered flylady last year and continue to delete those daily email digests when they come in my inbox because i just can't handle how we let the house get.
but knowing you are out there with your list on the fridge might just get me to finally say, "we must do this."
so many arguments that would be avoided...yes. so many.
thanks for the push you didn't know you were giving me.